Bid awarded for new Craven 911 center

Published: Monday, November 19, 2012 at 05:59 PM.

Two Craven County 911 Communications Center operators sat Monday in front of a three-screen console in a cramped office in the old Craven County Jail, monitoring sometimes life-and-death situations.

The Craven Street facility doesn’t smell like it did when it was a jail, but when Craven County commissioners walked through it on Monday, they saw an operation in need of more elbow room.

They unanimously agreed Monday to convert it into a new and expanded 911 Communications Center, Emergency Operations Center and county training room, a relocated Emergency Services Department, and the transfer and expansion of county information technology.

The $1.98 million bid to convert the facility was awarded to local contractors Brydge & Lee, which is expected to start on the renovation in about 90 days and complete it in nine months.

The conversion, based on design by C.R. Francis Architecture of New Bern, will move critical information technology into a more secure location and accomplish a job determined essential more than a year ago when bids came in too high to award.

County Manager Jack Veit told commissioners that assistant county managers Rick Hemphill and Gene Hodges with Emergency Management Services Director Stanley Kite and the architects to trim costs and discuss sources of revenue to help pay the bill.

Veit said the cost of heating and air conditioning caused construction costs to skyrocket over original expectations.

Two Craven County 911 Communications Center operators sat Monday in front of a three-screen console in a cramped office in the old Craven County Jail, monitoring sometimes life-and-death situations.

The Craven Street facility doesn’t smell like it did when it was a jail, but when Craven County commissioners walked through it on Monday, they saw an operation in need of more elbow room.

They unanimously agreed Monday to convert it into a new and expanded 911 Communications Center, Emergency Operations Center and county training room, a relocated Emergency Services Department, and the transfer and expansion of county information technology.

The $1.98 million bid to convert the facility was awarded to local contractors Brydge & Lee, which is expected to start on the renovation in about 90 days and complete it in nine months.

The conversion, based on design by C.R. Francis Architecture of New Bern, will move critical information technology into a more secure location and accomplish a job determined essential more than a year ago when bids came in too high to award.

County Manager Jack Veit told commissioners that assistant county managers Rick Hemphill and Gene Hodges with Emergency Management Services Director Stanley Kite and the architects to trim costs and discuss sources of revenue to help pay the bill.

Veit said the cost of heating and air conditioning caused construction costs to skyrocket over original expectations.

Federal 911 money that comes back to the county is designated to pay $362,00 for equipment and $105,000 for furnishings and some of the allowed costs of the upgrade, with $393,094 from half of the fiscal 2010 E-911 fund balance and $487,000 from the E-911 Fund.

County capital reserve funds of $238,394 and $863,083 from Craven County Fund Balance are expected to fund the rest.

Vice-chairman Scott Dacey said Alcohol Beverage Control receipts of about $800,000 will help make it happen.

The cost estimates include about $1 million for construction, $63,311 for demolition of some interior walls, $85,000 for architecture fees, $50,000 for EOC and EMS furnishings, $175,000 for Information Technology, and a $100,000 contingency fund.

Veit said the county held off for two years on a new 911 answering system and wants to do it with this project.

Delays also came while Veit and Kite discussed consolidating 911 communications with New Bern and Havelock that did not result in an agreement.

In addition to dispatching for Craven County Sheriff’s Office calls, Kite said Craven County 911 Communications answers and dispatches for 12 fire departments, seven Emergency Medical Systems, four municipal police departments, and several state agencies.

Kite said, “We’ve outgrown the space at the current 911 Center and the staff has done a terrific job with the makeshift and quick-fix equipment from the mid-’90s, but this will give us needed room to expand and room for future growth.”

The new facility’s proximity to Craven County Administration Building, which will be served by the information technology equipment, it and EMS moving out of that building make office space available for other uses including expanding the elections office downstairs and possibly an economic development office on the second floor.

The new offices, where emergency operations planning and coordinating for disasters including hurricanes will be done, will be in what most consider the strongest structure in the region, and it already has a generator.

“It is going to play an important role in continuing county government in unplanned events,” Kite said. With hurricanes, there is some warning and time to set up and plan, but with a facility already set up, emergency services could act on much shorter notice.

Kite said, “I can’t think of another building in the county with the structural integrity of that old jail. It’s got double and triple thick walls of poured concrete and look what it’s behind. That courthouse has stood the test of time.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.